4.03.2015

John Zelepos, the owner of Connecticut’s storied Mystic Pizza—the restaurant made famous in the 1988 movie starring Julia Roberts—has plead guilty to tax evasion and financial structuring crimes. Mystic Pizza’s website claims that screenwriter Amy Jones chose the shop as the setting for the story of three waitresses. It was truly a ‘Slice of Heaven’, but not for John Zelepos, the owner whose mixed charges could draw a long sentence. When he is sentenced on June 23 in Bridgeport, Connecticut, he could get up to 15 years in prison.
His guilty plea admits to evading $567,435 in taxes. Apart from potential jail time, Mr. Zelepos could face a $500,000 fine. He also agreed to make restitution of $234,407 for incomplete tax filings dating from 2006 to 2010, and to forfeit an additional $522,658 that he deposited into his personal accounts. Not only did this lead to tax charges, but to structuring in a manner designed to avoid financial reporting.